Headphone inline controls – how they differ on Apple iOS vs. Android/Nokia

[wlesieutre]

To be more precise than "they don't work because Apple is terrible," the two competing pinout standards are CTIA (previously meaning Cellular Telephone Industries Association) and OMTP (Open Mobile Terminal Platform).

According to Wikipedia, the OMTP devices include:

    * old Nokia (and also Lumia starting from the 2nd gen)
    * old Samsung (2012 Chromebooks)
    * old Sony Ericsson (2010 and 2011 Xperias)
    * Sony (PlayStation Vita)
    * OnePlus One
    * Xbox One controller with head phone jack
    * iPhone sold in China

and CTIA devices include:

    * Apple
    * HTC
    * LG
    * Blackberry
    * latest Nokia (including 1st gen Lumia as well as later models)
    * latest Samsung
    * Jolla
    * Sony (Dualshock 4)
    * Microsoft (including Surface and Xbox One controller with chat     adapter)
    * most Android phones

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phone_connector_(audio)#TRRS_s...

I haven't personally tested most of those, but IIRC when I had a Surface Pro the iPhone TRRS earbuds worked fine with it.

[stonogo]

CTIA is a post-facto 'standardization' of what used to be known as 'AHJ,' which came about once companies needed a name for 'Apple-compatible' without actually naming Apple. CTIA is primarily a lobbying organization, and their past hits include laws that made it easier for the US government to surveil email and an attempt to get the US government to shut off TV broadcasting entirely.

OMTP was an actual standard from a real-life standards body -- the same one that brought us micro-USB across all non-Apple phones. We lost functionality when we lost OMTP; imagine a world where you had dedicated buttons for track forward and back.

Having been involved in the design phase of devices that supported each standard, I miss OMTP.

[KeytarHero]

That only covers the mic/ground pinout, though. As far as the remote buttons working goes, assuming the info in the post is correct, it is Apple not wanting to play fair:

> Additionally, Apple has patents on their TRRS connection- in fact on the resistances (the actual ohm resistance in-line on the controls- not to get scientific or anything) so that the headphones are designed to work only with Apple products

[anonymfus]

Actually most Lumias support both standards. Also USB-C devices with alternate mode for analog USB-C-to-3.5mm adaptors must support both standards (because reversing connector swaps these contacts).

[skykooler]

So that's why my Jolla doesn't work with my old Nokia headphones. I was wondering, considering they were the same engineers.

[jws]

For the curious or confused by the "when you tap the button it shoots an electrical signal that the phone will pick up and interpret" in the article, the control buttons are implemented as resistors switched across the mic/ground pair. The mic is 1000Ω or higher. The functions resistors are lower. You can see nice diagrams at… http://source.android.com/devices/accessories/headset/plug-h...

[hugodahl]

Very nice and handy reference! Will give me something to compare against and my Pixel and Amazon headset. Apparently, vol up on the headset triggers the assistant, while all other buttons work as expected. Oddly, the same headset worked flawlessly on a OPO and Nexus 6. And Google hardware support cannot recommend a specific make/model, just one with "an on/off switch for the mic".

[rickdeckard]

Apple didn't patent a "resistance", they implemented a control-chip in their headphones starting from the iPod Shuffle in ~2009, and patented that chip.

Purpose was to ensure a revenue-share from headphones so that every accessory-maker who wanted in-line controls had to pay a license to Apple to use the control-chip.

(the control-chip was meanwhile reverse-engineered and its functionality is now integrated in non-licensed headphones as well)

[bostand]

"ensure a revenue-share"

Such a nice word for such an ugly business practice....

[mattkevan]

Has this got anything to do with the way inline controls seem to be unreliable in Android?

I got out of the habit of using them as there was only a 50/50 chance of anything happening when pressing a button. Sometimes even when successful it would take a while to take effect. Pressing the button a few times in case it didn't register led to nonsense like it stopping and starting rapidly a few seconds later.

I first noticed this on a Fairphone on 4.2 and just thought it was due to a sluggish phone on an old system, but the problem remained on a Nexus 6 with versions 5 and 6.

Also Android seems to be bad at remembering the last audio app that was open. On iOS, you can listen to something, unplug the headphones, do something, plug them back in, hit the play button and you carry on where you left off. Android not so much - you have to manually open the app for it to work. Although I once had a podcast app and a music app start at the same time.

[hsod]

> On iOS, you can listen to something, unplug the headphones, do something, plug them back in, hit the play button and you carry on where you left off

In my experience, this doesn't work very well anymore on iOS 10

[aembleton]

I find Poweramp [1] reliably starts every time I plugin my earphones.

1. http://powerampapp.com/

[simonjgreen]

This is not a fair representation of the situation at all, and also doesn't even hold true.

For example, I recently switched from iPhone to Galaxy S7. My apple earbuds centre button pauses and resumes but the volume controls do nothing. So the problem is not as straightforward as Apple vs Android.

[codfrantic]

To make things even more complicated, I have a Sony Xperia Z2 which uses a 5 point jack plug TRRRS, as far as I know the extra connection is only used to receive microphone signal from the included noise cancelling headphones.[1] (Since the noise cancelling logic is handled on the phone).

[1] https://www.sonymobile.com/global-en/products/accessories/di...

[tener]

> In other words- you could have a device with the same TRRS Pinout as apple products- but the headset wont work because the resistances (ohms) of the headphones send signals that your phone is not allowed to interpret into the correct actions (since apple patented these)

Can you seriously patent actual resistances?

[joecool1029]

Pretty sure Blackberry use the Apple 'standard' as well.

[nickcano]

This causes a ton of compatibility problems, and it's worse that a lot of companies don't seem to care and advertise compatibility anyways. I noticed this a while ago when I wrote this review: https://www.amazon.com/review/R2RH78QWKSM5W7/ref=cm_aya_cmt?...

[jswny]

Wow I had no idea this is why Apple headphones don't work on other devices. I was under the impression they did not work because apple devices are 3 pole vs. everything else being 2 pole.

[jrockway]

Apple headphones work with other devices. I use the iPhone headphones for videoconferences on my Asus Chromebox, for example.

[davidbanham]

Everything with a microphone is 3 pole.